Rope or cable tie including a hydraulic take-up

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for taking-up the slack in a sailboat rope or cable stay or in the tie line for cargo aboard ship or any vehicle. Hydraulic means in the form of a cylinder with a piston that is connected to the line that is to be tensioned beyond normal individual manual ability, in which a hand pump produces the hydraulic pressure to advance the piston in the cylinder and at the same time drastically increase the pull or tension on the attached cable, and means to mechanically lock the desired degree of tension on the connected line.

United States Patent Banks, Jr.

[451 Apr. 25, 1972 54] ROPE OR CABLE TIE INCLUDING A HYDRAULIC TAKE-UP [72] lnventor: William L. Banks, Jr., 226 Warner Avenue, Rosalyn Heights, NY. 11577 [22] Filed: Feb. 24, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 13,702

52 us. on .L ..254/51 [5i] Int. Cl. ..B66f 3/00 [58] Field of Search ..254/29 A, 51, 93; 248/361 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,699,586 1/1955 Dorsey et al. ..254/5l X 3,090,598 5/1963 Paul ..254/29 A Primary ExaminerAndrew R. .luhasz Assistant Examiner-David R. Melton Attorney-Howard T. J eandron [5 7] ABSTRACT An apparatus for taking-up the slack in a sailboat rope or cable stay or in the tie line for cargo aboard ship or any vehicle. Hydraulic means in the form of a cylinder with a piston that is connected to the line that is to be tensioned beyond normal individual manual ability, in which a hand pump produces the hydraulic pressure to advance the piston in the cylinder and at the same time drastically increase the pull or tension on the attached cable, and means to mechanically lock the desired degree of tension on the connected line.

6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEU APR 2 5 I972 SHEET 10F 3 I L.) l .rl Ill i I A INVENTOR.

WILLIAM L. BANKSJR.

PATENTEDAPP. 25 I972 SHEET 3 BF 3 M 1| 0 Vaughan INVENTOR. WILLIAJ? .L. BANKS JR.

AGENT ROPE 01R CABLE TIE INCLUDING A HYDRAULIC TAKE- UP This invention relates to rope or cable take-up devices and more particularly to a device to be used with a sailboat stay line, or cargo load tie line to remove slack and maintain a taught line.

Most cable or rope take-up devices are either in the form of a block and tackle or a turnbuckle. With sailboats, the smaller boats depend uponpulleys or blocks to handle the stays and rigging, but with the larger boats the pull required to set the stress on stays using a turnbuckle and handle the adjusting tension on the rigging is far beyond the average seaman. Thus assisting means is desirable to permit one seaman to adjust the stays to the mast or to the rigging to remove all slack and also permit adjustment of the angular relationship of the mast relative to the deck. Also in the handling of cargo especially on shipboard and more particularly the tying down of the large containers used in containerized shipping. The containers may be stacked on deck or below deck but once they are positioned they must be lashed down to prevent any shifting. The present types are in most cases applied manually and do not provide a great deal of tension, thus they must be continually checked and all slack taken-up to prevent shifting. Thus assisting means is also desirable to permit one seamen to take-up the slack in all ties and prevent any shifting of cargo. This handling of cargo is also applicable to aircraft as well.

It is an object of this invention to provide an assisting device for a single seaman to take-up the slack in a mast stay or in the rigging to maintain the most desirable adjustment for shroud control, mast control, and rigging and provide the desired balance for the sail boat to produce the best headway.

A further object of this invention is to provide a take-up for a stay cable on a sailboat in which the manual tension for attachment is small but the adjusting take-up is greatly increased by incorporating a hydraulic cylinder and system to provide the necessary pull over the final degree of take-up.

A further object of this invention is to provide a take-up device for a cable or tie which includes a hydraulic cylinder wherein the length of travel of the piston in the hydraulic cylinder is the length of take-up and wherein the initial manual take-up tension for attachment between the cylinder piston and the cable may be 50 pounds but the tension introduced by the hydraulic cylinder may increase to 3,000 pounds.

A still further object of this invention is to provide an improved take-up adjustment for a cable or tie which is light in weight, easily mounted and capable of operation by one individual to provide any predetermined tensioning of the cable or he Other objects of this invention may be apparent by reference to the accompanying detailed description and the drawings in which FIG. 1 is a plan view of a hydraulicly actuated turnbuckle shown partially in cross section,

FIG. 2 is an enlarged detail of the turnbuckle cable attachment shown partially in cross section,

FIG. 3 is a further embodiment, shown partially in cross section,

FIG. 4 is a still further embodiment shown partially in cross section,

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 4, and

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view taken on line 6-6 of FIG. 4.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is illustrated a rope or cable tie 10 which includes a hydraulic take-up in the form of a hydraulic cylinder 11. The rope or cable 12 is fed through mechanical turnbuckle l4. Turnbuckle 14 consists of a collett l5 threadably mounted in a cylinder 16 and the adjusting nut 17 mounted on collett so that adjustment of nut 17 forces collett .15 to grip the rope or cable 12. The rope or cable 12 feeds through collett l5 and out through an aperture 18 in cylinder 16, thus the'rope or cable 12 may be manually pulled,

to a desired tension and collett 15 maybe adjusted to grip the rope and make a fixed tie with cylinder 16. Cylinder 16 is an integral portion of a cage like housing 20, the housing 20 having a plurality of extending bars 21 that extend along the length of a hydraulic cylinder 11 and at their end are provided with jaws 23 to mate with and grasp a second collett 24. Collett 24 surrounding the hydraulic cylinder 11 and collett 24 being movable and adjustable to grasp cylinder 1 l at any point along the length of the cylinder. The collett 24 being set by taking up nut 25 to draw the collett between the jaws 23 and produce a pressure grip of cylinder 11 when it is desirable to retain a particular portion between the housing 20 and cylinder 11. Cylinder 11 at its unattached end is provided with a pin 26 to permit pinning the cylinder to a yoke 27. Yoke 27 is provided with a pin 28 for attachment to any fixed holding device, such as a deck plate or davit on a ship. Cylinder 11 is provided with a piston 30 and piston rod 31. The piston rod 31 extending through the end of the cylinder 11 and rod 31 provided with an enlarged end 32 so that the enlarged end 32 may be mounted within housing 20 in a chamber 33 and a ball bearing 34 mounted in front of the enlarged end 32 and rotatable on rod 31, to retain the ball bearing in this position a threaded insert 35 is mounted in the face of housing 20 in front of chamber 33 as illustrated, thus there is a definite mechanical retention of piston 30 to housing 20, thus with piston 30 completely drawn to abut with a shoulder 40 at the end of piston 30 and with the pistons affixed by pin 28 at one end and with the rope or cable 12 pulled taut and locked by the collett at the opposite end, the apparatus is in position to provide additional tension on the rope or cable 12. With the collett 24 released so that housing 20 and jaws 23 will permit the collett to slide loosely on cylinder 11, a hydraulic system 41 is connected to a port 42 of cylinder 11. The hydraulic system 41 comprises a fluid reservoir 43 connected by a pipe 44 to a fluid hand operated pump 45. Pump 45 in turn connected by a pipe 46 to a check valve 47, check valve 47 in turn being connected by a pipe 48 to a relief valve 49. The relief valve being connected on one side by a pipe 50 to port 42. In addition the relief pipe 51 is connected between the relief valve 49 and the reservoir 43 for the return of fluid as needed, thus, this hydraulic system is utilized by operating hand pump 45 with the relief valve set at a desired maximum pressure such as 2,000 pounds. With the pump 45 being operated the fluid pressure will pass through the system to port 42 and into cylinder 11. As the pressure increases above the 50 pound pull originally set in the rope or cable 12 and piston will be moved by the increased pressure of the fluid and this will produce a greater tension on the rope or cable 12. At the same time the movement of piston 30 produces a movement of housing 20 to follow the movement of piston 30, thus the jaws of the collet 24 are advanced along the exterior surface of cylinder 11. When the desired tension is attained in the rope or cable 12 the collett nut 25 may be turned until the collett has provided a mechanical vice-like grip upon the cylinder to retain the position that has been attained by piston 30, thus the device does not depend upon retaining its increased tension position by the hydraulic fluid system but rather by the collett grip on the cylinder, but in the event the rope or cable needs further adjustment the hydraulic fluid system must be pumped to a retaining pressure so that the collett nut 25 may be released and further movement of the piston may be made to tighten or loosen tension as desired and the collett nut 25 may be again set. In the event the tie of the rope or cable 12 is no longer needed or there is insufficient pull to return piston 30 to its initial position the cylinder 11 is provided with an outlet port 54 connected by a pipe 55 to an accumulator 56, the accumulator 56 being nothing more than an enclosed cylinder with a diaphragm 57 so that if the piston 30 is advanced in cylinder 11 the air or fluid is charged through outlet port 54 and pipe 55 and the accumulator 56, building up under the diaphragm 57. Diaphragm 57 will collapse as illustrated in dotted lines to retain the fluid within the accumulator 56, however, there is suflicient pressure stored on the opposite side of diaphragm is by adjusting or turning the relief valve down to a zero or minimum pressure the air or fluid from the accumulator 56 will return through pipe 55 and port 54 forcing piston 30 back to its starting position. This return pressure is only sufficient to provide the return stroke and is not a deterent to the forward movement of piston 30 during operation.

Referring to FIG. 2 it is apparent that with the initial pull of rope or cable 12 the collett 15 permits a fixed attachment to the cylinder 16. There is a further adjustment or take-up 14 provided by means of the external thread of the bore of cylinder 16. This adjustment of turnbuckle 14 by drawing the collett into the threaded bore within cylinder 16, is only used as an initial setting to provide a longer or shorter overall of the device. To adjust this the housing must be held stationary while the collett is turned, although a degree of rotation of housing 20 is permissable as long as the line 50 to port 42 is not entangled or interferred with, A taut line 12 is desired before pumping the hydraulic system to take-up from the initial manual setting. This permits tie lines to be increased from a 50 pound pull to a 2,000 pound pull or more, according to the predetermined size and capability of the hydraulic cylinder to be used.

Referring to FIG. 3 there is illustrated a further embodiment of this invention as mounted on a sailboat for tensioning a stay. There is provided a deck davit or eye pin 60 that is pinned to a yoke 61. The yoke 61 in turn being pivotally pinned by means of a pin 62 to a block and tackle 63. The block and tackle 63 supporting a pulley 64 and the tackle being the stay rope or cable 12. The block 63 is connected to a hollow cylindrical housing 65. Housing 65 at its upper end provided with a collett 66, the collett mounted in the end of housing 65 so that as the collett 66 is drawn through the end 67 ofthe housing it will grip the rope or cable 12. The collett is drawn through by means ofa hand turned nut 68 which bears against the end 67 of the housing, thus when the stay 12 is passed through collett 66 and around pulley 64 the stay line may be pulled to a manual tension of probably 50 pounds and the collett 66 may be set to hold the line for its initial position. Since it is desirable to increase the tension on 12 considerable the line or cable is passed through the deck 70 and attached to a link 71 of a pivotal connection 72. The pivotal connection being the end of a piston rod 73, the piston rod extending into a hydraulic cylinder 74 and connected to a piston 75 therein, cylinder 74 being similar to the cylinder 11 of the previous embodiment in which the cylinder is connected to a hydraulic system 41 A, the hydraulic system using similar components, a reservoir 43, a pump 45, a check valve 47, and a relief valve 49 and a control valve 76. In this system the control valve on one side is connected to one end of the cylinder and on the other side is connected to the opposite end of the cylinder. The control valve is a four-way ported valve so that the other two ports, one being connected to the pressure line and the other being connected to the return line. In operation with the control valve set in forward position the actuation of pump 45 will draw fluid from reservoir 43 through the check valve 47, through the relief valve 49, through the control valve 76, through the feed line 50A into the cylinder 74, forcing the piston downward and increasing tension on the rope or cable 12, with 50 pounds pressure produced by the hand pump the collett 66 may be released to allow the rope or cable 12 to be pulled through the collett thus by operating hand pump 45 the pressure increases and the piston 75 moves downward and the rope or cable tension is increased to take up all slack to a desired degree when collett 66 may be again set to hold the rope or cable 12, and the hydraulic system may be released or left at the pressure attained if it is no longer holding the cable. The hydraulic system illustrated is a completely enclosed system so that with the movement of piston 75 the fluid passes through the control valve and back to the reservoir, but when it is desired to return piston 75 to its starting position control valve 76 must be switched to its return position R and pump 45 operated so that pressure is forced through the return pipe to force piston 75 back. The control valve is drawn to its forward position F and it is ready for the next cycle of operation. In this embodiment the hydraulic system, although shown below deck, requiring a two man operation, it may be positioned above deck to permit a one-man operation in which the seaman would operate the pump when desired, releasing the collett 66 and setting the collett 66 as required although the guage has not been provided to indicate the tension produced on the rope or cable, a standard tensioning gauge may be used anywhere in the tensioned line to give an accurate reading and prevent overstressing any line that is being tensioned.

Referring to FIGS. 4, 5, and 6, there is illustrated a still further embodiment of this invention in which a similar hydraulic cylinder 11B is provided and the cylinder 11B is connected at one end in similar fashion to the previous embodiment to retain that end of the cylinder in a fixed position. The opposite end of the cylinder is provided with a yoke 80 and the piston rod 31A extends through the cylinder head 81. The end of piston rod 31A is provided with a threaded bore 82. A threaded element 83 is mounted in the bore 82 and a lock nut 84 is provided in element 83 and further a control plate 85 is mounted between a shoulder 86 on the piston rod and retained in this position by the lock nut 84. The end of the threaded element 83 is affixed to a yoke 87 which may be attached to a tie 87A for the end of a stay line or tie line 12 as the case may be. The control plate 85 is provided with apertures 88 in parallel alighment at either end of plate 85. Through these apertures a threaded shaft or bolt 89 is mounted and retained to plate 85 by lock nuts 90. Both shafts extend through an aperture 91 in the yoke 80. The threaded shaft also extends through blocks 92. The blocks 92 are pivotally mounted by means of a pin 93 and nut 94 to an extended bar 95. Bar 95 being affixed to the yoke 80 thus both blocks 92 are mounted on either side of cylinder 118 with shafts 89 extending through blocks 92, to stabilize the pivotal blocks 92 in their pivotal position and a portion 96 on the exterior of cylinder 118 in alignment with the pins 93 and a second pair of pins 93A are threaded into the portions 96 and pivotally inserted in blocks 92, permitting the block to move pivotally about a single axis. Blocks 92 being pivotally mounted they do not have a concentric bore through the block for shaft 89, but rather as illustrated in FIG. 5 the upper portion of block 92 has a threaded half round bore that may in the position illustrated bear upon the surface of shaft 89, while the lower portion of block 92 has a rear half round portion threaded to bear upon the under surface of shaft 89, thus providing block 92 with a solid temporary grip of shaft 89 with the handle 97 in the upright position as illustrated. Handle 97 being fixed to block 92, the central aperture through block 92 being a semi circle with a threaded form on one side is simply cut-away in the opposite side to allow the pivotal movement of block 92. Similarly the lower half is threaded and the central portion being to the rear and the cutaway on the upper portion to permit the pivotal movement, thus when handle 97 is moved to its dotted position. Block 92 will be pivotally moved, lifting the threaded gripping portion from shaft 89 and allowing shaft 89 to move freely through block 92. Thus in practice when a line or cable is attached to yoke 87 generally with a predetermined tension for tying handle 97 will be in its dotted position and thus shaft 89 are freely movable through blocks 92. With a hydraulic system similar to that illustrated in the previous embodiment a fluid pressure may be introduced through port 42 and the piston will be moved to the left, FIG. 4, thus pulling piston rod 31A and increasing the tension on the tied line. When the desired degree of tension has been obtained handle 97 may be moved to the full line position as illustrated in FIG. 5, thus blocks 92 will grip shaft 89 and will mechanically lock the position attainedby the piston to retain the attached line in the desired tension. Adjustment of the line attached to yoke 87 may be made by bringing the hydraulic system pressure up to the desired pressure and releasing handle 97 to its dotted position permitting increasing or decreasing the tension as desired and again setting handle 97 when the predetermined or required tension is reached.

Although we have described a hydraulic means of increasing the tnnsion on a stay line or tie line we may similarly use pneumatic means to produce the same results and although we have shown different mountings for attachment of the rope or cable being turned, we may depart from the particular design as long as the same elements are utilized to produce the same results. Although we have described the rope or cable take-up device as applied to a sailboat as a stay line or part of the rigging, and although we have referred to the take-up line for lashing down cargo, either on board a ship or airplane or a land vehicle. We may similarly use this device in many other ways such as retaining a hatch cover on cargo vessels and tie downs for barges, that is taking-up the lines that may be utilized for lashing the hatch covers and for tying down the barge lines to a tight relationship, thus various uses will be included wherever the manual setting of a line or cable is insufficient, that is with regard to the actual tension provided manually so that this device will permit extremely higher tension on the take-up although it is actually produced manually by a simple pumpingoperation.

The invention described in detail in the foregoing specification is subject to changes and modifications without departing from the principal and spirit thereof. The terminology used is for purposes of description and not of limitation; the scope of this invention being defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

I. In combination a take-up device for a tie-line which includes an element to grasp the tie-line and a hydraulic cylinder and system to charge and actuate said cylinder, said hydraulic cylinder separated from said take-up device, said hydraulic cylinder having a piston that is connected to said take-up device, said hydraulic system including a fluid reservoir connected to a hand pump and said hand pump connected to said hydraulic cylinder with a check valve to prevent back-up of the cylinder pressure and a relief valve to divert any excess fluid not utilized in producing the desired change to said cylinder, said tie-line pulled taut and grasped by said take-up device, said tie-line from said take-up device connected to said hydraulic cylinder, said pump actuated to increase the pressure in said hydraulic cylinder and the tension on said tieline to a desired degree.

2. In a device according to claim 1 in which said take-up device is a manually adjustable collet through which the tieline passes and said collet is secured to a block holding unit separated from the piston rod of said hydraulic cylinder and said block holding unit is retained in a fixed location.

3. In a device according to claim 1 in which said element to grasp said tie-line is a manually adjustable collet through which the tie line passes and said collet is affixed to a yoke that surrounds said cylinder, said yoke including a second collet that is external to said hydraulic cylinder and is manually adjustable to a holding grip on said cylinder, means to release said first collet and produce a desired tension on said tie-line with said hydraulic cylinder and means to engage said first collet to retain the desired tension.

4. In a device according to claim 1 in which said connecting element is a block and tackle, said block and tackle including a mechanically operated collet, said tie-line passed through said collet and pulled taut manually and said collet set to hold said tie-line, said tie-line passed through said block and tackle and affixed to the piston rod of said hydraulic cylinder, means to increase the tension on said tie-line after releasing said collet by increasing the pressure in said hydraulic cylinder and means to reset said collet at the end of the stroke to retain the tension setting on said tie line.

5. In a device according to claim 3 in which said yoke is a movable plate affixed to said piston rod and supports a pair of parallel rods, one on each side of said cylinder, said cylinder having a second stationary yoke at one end through which said rods pass, said stationary yoke supporting a pair of pivotally movable cam blocks that straddle said rods, said cam blocks in one position engaging said rods and in an opposite position disengaging said rods, means to disengage said second yoke from said rods and operate said hydraulic system to increase fluid pressure and move said piston to increase tension on said tie-line and means to pivotally move said cam blocks in unison to engage said parallel rods and retain the tension setting attained with said hydraulic cylinder.

6. In a device according to claim 5, means to release said cam blocks from said rods and bleed said hydraulic pressure to drop the pressure and release tension on said tie-line. 

1. In combination a take-up device for a tie-line which includes an element to grasp the tie-line and a hydraulic cylinder and system to charge and actuate said cylinder, said hydraulic cylinder separated from said take-up device, said hydraulic cylinder having a piston that is connected to said take-up device, said hydraulic system including a fluid reservoir connected to a hand pump and said hand pump connected to said hydraulic cylinder with a check valve to prevent back-up of the cylinder pressure and a relief valve to divert any excess fluid not utilized in producing the desired change to said cylinder, said tie-line pulled taut and grasped by said take-up device, said tie-line from said take-up device connected to said hydraulic cylinder, said pump actuated to increase the pressure in said hydraulic cylinder and the tension on said tie-line to a desired degree.
 2. In a device according to claim 1 in which said take-up device is a manually adjustable collet through which the tie-line passes and said collet is secured to a block holding unit separated from the piston rod of said hydraulic cylinder and said block holding unit is retained in a fixed location.
 3. In a device according to claim 1 in which said element to grasp said tie-line is a manually adjustable collet through which the tie line passes and said collet is affixed to a yoke that surrounds said cylinder, said yoke including a second collet that is external to said hydraulic cylinder and is manually adjustable to a holding grip on said cylinder, means to release said first collet and produce a desired tension on said tie-line with said hydraulic cylinder and means to engage said first collet to retain the desired tension.
 4. In a device according to claim 1 in which said connecting element is a block and tackle, said block and tackle including a mechanically operated collet, said tie-line passed through said collet and pulled taut manually and said collet set to hold said tie-line, said tie-line passed through said block and tackle and affixed to the piston rod of said hydraulic cylinder, means to increase the tension on said tie-line after releasing said collet by increasing the pressure in said hydraulic cylinder and means to reset said collet at the end of the stroke to retain the tension setting on said tie line.
 5. In a device according to claim 3 in which said yoke is a movable plate affixed to said piston rod and supports a pair of parallel rods, one on each side of said cylinder, said cylinder having a second stationary yoke at one end through which said rods pass, said stationary yoke supporting a pair of pivotally movable cam blocks that straddle said rods, said cam blocks in one position engaging said rods and in an opposite position disengaging said rods, means to disengage said second yoke from said rods and operate said hydraulic system to increase fluid pressure and move said piston to increase tension on said tie-line and means to pivotally move said cam blocks in unison to engage said parallel rods and retain the tension setting attained with said hydraulic cylinder.
 6. In a device according to claim 5, means to release said cam blocks from said rods and bleed said hydraulic pressure to drop the pressure and release tension on said tie-line. 